The Tin Dog
by futbalfreak18
Summary: The fourth and ninth Doctors, along with Rose and K-9, find a ghost in an old theater.


The Tin Dog

by futbalfreak18

Feb 7 2008

No, no, don't rub it in. No, still no claim on the anything Doctor Who. Sometimes I think that if I even stare too hard at something Doctor Who the po-po will come for me.

* * *

"Now, why are we here again?" Rose asked. She was wearing her pink jacket, and her usual pair of jeans. A sleeping bag and pillow were tucked under her left arm. In front of her the two doctors walked, each carrying their own sleeping bags.

"We're just here to check into some disturbances, shouldn't be much of anything really" replied the ninth doctor, nonchalantly.

"So do these 'disturbances' involve megalomaniac aliens, accidental time travelers, deadly space epidemics, alien invasions, or ghosts?" Rose queried.

"Ding, ding, ding. You're a winner. What are ghosts?" said the fourth Doctor.

"Oh, lovely. And all you have for protection is the sonic screwdriver?"

"I am here, mistress" came K-9's metallic voice.

"Yes, K-9, and you will do a very good job."

"Besides," broke in the fourth Doctor, "What else are we supposed to bring. A sledgehammer may do a good job on an Auton, but it won't do anything to a ghost."

"Maybe, but at least then I could smash up walls or something."

The fourth Doctor reached a warm hand back to take Rose's. Her arm felt tingly, like it was melting.

"You won't need to smash anything Rose" he said. "There's probably nothing here. And anyway, I'm here right?" He gave her his toothy grin. She couldn't help but smile in the light of his happiness and utter confidence. The ninth Doctor gave his counterpart the evil eye before stalking on ahead onto a stage.

"So how did we end up here anyway? Shouldn't ghosts be left to psychics and the Ghost Busters?" Rose asked.

"Well, actually…" the ninth Doctor was kneeling over his half unrolled sleeping bag, trying his best to look sheepish. Of course, Rose could read straight away that he was secretly gleeful about something.

"C'mon now, spit it out. What did you do now?"

"Remember when Ricky the idi-" he stopped. "Remember when Mickey," he spat the name out, "called the other day and we were busy running from the Gallagorphs on Grunnderguff?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"And you through your phone to me because he said he'd found something odd."

"Keep going"

"Well, this is the place he was talking about. Apparently, people have been disappearing randomly and then coming back couple days later."

"So what's the catch." Rose's eyebrow had broken the world record for highest altitude as she gave the doctor her best questioning look.

"Well, Ricky, oops, I mean Mickey said we weren't to do this without him because… well I'm sure you can figure it out. But I decided to ignore him." The ninth Doctor smiled obviously completely happy with himself, like a kid who'd just stuck a whoopee cushion under their older brother's unsuspecting butt.

"You play dirty, using Mickey's lead and then shutting him out" Rose began. She paused and smiled. "But this time I'm rather happy you did." Because c'mon. Who wouldn't want to spend the night with two Doctors even if they were in separate sleeping bags?

Rose doubted she could change the sleeping situation as much as she wanted to. When the Doctors were on a search, they wouldn't let anything get in there way. Not aliens, Torchwood, or unfortunately an attention-hungry Rose.

Rose sighed to herself before walking over to the center of the stage and laying her sleeping bag in between the Doctors'. She knelt down to smooth out the wrinkles, despite the fact they wouldn't disappear without a serious ironing. She rubbed behind K-9's ears when he came over. The Doctors hated it when both K-9's metal finish was scratched. Both of the Doctor's were walking around the stage checking for any obvious extraterrestrial or supernatural activity.

"K-9, between you and me, do you sense any unusual activity here?" Rose asked.

"Nothing is in the range of my sensors, mistress."

"Do you know what this place is then? Why a decrepit old theater?"

"This theater was built on the remains of a cottage that burned down in 1692, before that cornfields existed here. The site remained empty for 30 years after the cottage burned down, but was then replaced with a jail and execution grounds, because the former jail was filled with highwaymen and proclaimed blasphemers awaiting trial. That was taken down once the number of criminals in the jail dropped down. Next, in 1802 the Century Theater was began construction here, but the name changed to the Rose Theater after the wife of the owner, Samuel Keetcher, died. The theater was abandoned upon his death only 5 years later. With 72 seats, 7 boxes, 13 backstage rooms, 4 offices, and 3 bathrooms, there is a total area of…"

Rose had tuned him out. Rose had been quite interested. The ghosts of the former jail were a possibility for the unusual activity, especially falsely accused blasphemers, and the similar names was creepy. However, she had found something much more attention-grabbing. The fourth Doctor had just stood up from examining one of the stages trapdoors. The fourth Doctor's shirt was unbuttoned. The fourth Doctor's chest was showing just a little bit.

Rose blinked several times to make sure she was seeing straight. The Doctor's chest was showing? The fourth Doctor was always completely covered in layers upon layers of impenetrable clothing, topped off by the gianormous Godzilla-sized scarf.

Rose quickly reaffixed her facial features into an adequately normal from her staring, and wiped the little bit of drool from the corner of her lips when she felt K-9's cold metal edge bump into her leg.

"Was mistress listening?"

"Ah yes K-9, I was listening. The bit about the former jail being here was especially intriguing. Is there any way you could look up more about that?"

" I will check the memory banks for more information."

"That's good, that's good. Why don't you look around for some clues too? That might help."

"I thought mistress didn't believe there were any ghosts here?"

"Well, better safe than sorry, right? Now, go on Scooby-Doo."

"Scooby-Doo?"

"Uh, yeah. Check your memory under 70's cartoons, you'll find it."

"Yes, mistress." K-9 rolled away. Rose felt a little bad for sending him away with such a poor excuse. She'd have to walk him, and play with him later to make up for it. Right now, though, she had more important matters to look into.

Rose stood up from her where she was still kneeling. Brushing invisible dust off her jacket and jeans, she turned and walked towards the fourth Doctor. He was dusting off one of the gas lights in a hallway leading off stage left with the end of his scarf. At the moment, the ninth Doctor was on the opposite side of the stage inspecting the edge of the curtain, now more brown with dust than its original red color, which appeared to have been burned at some point.

Rose advanced towards her prey on the balls of her feet, like a cat, trying not to make her approach obvious. Almost silently she stepped to his side, hands behind her back in a look of feigned innocence. She couldn't see the bare patch of chest because he was turned just slightly away from her, and the scarf blocked it. Like the scarf wasn't in the way most of the time anyway.

"Doctor" Rose said sweetly. "What are you looking at?"

"Oh, hello Rose." He turned to face her, and there it was! It was just a small triangle, under his scarf and above his shirt and vest. Rose could afford it only a minute glance though, before she tore her eyes away to look in the Doctor's warm eyes.

"This is just a light. Perfectly normal as far as I can tell."

"Then why are you looking at it? I thought you were looking for things that had to deal with the ghost?" Rose looked down to steal another look, but the Doctor had turned again to touch the light, with his rough fingers.

"If you look long enough, sometimes you might just find something."

"But-" Rose was cut off, by what sounded like a nails scraping on chalkboard.

The Doctor's probing had somehow turned the lamp to a ninety degree angle. In the wall to the left of the light a door way had opened, revealing only impenetrable darkness.

Then came a scream from somewhere in the depths of the hole.

"What was that?" yelled the ninth Doctor. His boots pounded on the stage, as he ran to them. As he appeared in the hallway, his expression made Rose feel like her insides had melted. His face said, Four-that-better-not have-been-Rose-or-else-I'd-have-to-have-K-9-stun-you-indefinitely. The look was gone the moment he saw Rose. He swept her into a hug.

"Doctor," she gasped, "ribs." Of course, he did smell nicely of leather and that scent that only this Doctor had.

"Oh yes." He let her go, but his finger lingered for a minute on the edges of her sleeves. "If it wasn't you, then who screamed.?"

The fourth Doctor pointed down the new passage.

"Fantastic." The Doctor's grin stretched from ear to ear, completely excited now he knew Rose was safe.

The fourth Doctor returned his grin.

"All right then, why aren't we gone?" asked the fourth Doctor. The Doctors started walking into the dark hole, fumbling with their respective sonic screwdrivers until a dull glow emanated from both.

"But what about K-9?" Rose questioned. The ninth Doctor turned and grabbed her hand.

"He'll find us."

"But he's my only protection!" Rose shouted, and she was pulled into the darkness.

Rose stumbled along pulled along by the ninth Doctor. She couldn't see anything apart from the two glowing lights, that were the sonic screwdrivers. Both of the Doctors seemed like they knew exactly where they were going despite the poor light. Rose supposed that must just be a Doctor thing. Even if you have no idea what you're doing, always look like you do. That's the Doctors' first rule. Of course, the Golden rule is never, EVER, let Rose get hurt. Rose smiled at the thought.

Underfoot, the floor felt worn smooth from constant use in its prime, and the air was musty and stale. The stench clogged Rose's nostrils. How much longer would they be in here? Rose began to cough.

There was a square of light up ahead. A little bit further and she'd be home free. The Doctors' pace picked up, and just as Rose was sure she was going to cough up a lung, they broke into the square of light.

"Well, this is certainly unusual" said the fourth Doctor.

"Where are we?" asked Rose between gulps of the fresh air that was now available to her lungs, even though she couldn't see exactly where the source was. The room was wallpapered in what must at one time have been a pink, flower pattern, but now it was mostly just the color of dust. The floor was smooth, faded red wood. The only furniture in the room was a large wooden desk, the same color as the floor, and three chairs. Three sconces were scattered about the room. "And since when can ghosts turn on gas lights?"

"I've heard ghosts can do anything they want as long as they are fueled by enough emotion. Besides, remember when we visited Dickens? Those "ghosts" could animate dead bodies, I'm sure they could operate gas lights too" replied the ninth Doctor.

"First, you only answered my second question. Second, those weren't ghosts with Dickens those were aliens, and ghosts and aliens are very different. Now, because you only answered one of my questions, I'm adding interest. Here's some more: where's K-9, where's the ghost, and where's the person who screamed?"

"That's some heavy interest." responded the ninth Doctor. He was still holding Rose's hand, but he dropped it and turned to face her fully. "K-9's probably in the tunnel, the ghost is probably the one who screamed, and if I knew where the ghost was that is where we'd be."

The Doctor seemed slightly exasperated by the last point. Rose just stared beyond his left shoulder stunned.

"Uh Doctor, thanks for actually answering all my questions, but we, uh, we got a little problem." She pointed to the spot behind the Doctor. He turned.

"Well Rose, I think we've found our ghost." The specter was no more than a shimmering light. The ninth Doctor slowly turned back to her and smiled. "Fantastic." The Doctor spun back to the ghost, sonic screwdriver in hand. He thrust it right into the center of the floating, silver mass, and pushed a button. Nothing happened.

"I thought the sonic screwdriver was supposed to be our protection! I told you we needed K-9!" Rose shouted as she looked around for anything that may be of use. The fourth Doctor came flying past her, scarf floating behind him, and threw a chair at the silvery figure. The chair went through the specter, crashed into the wall, and fell to the floor with a large thud.

"That did us a whole lot of good" the ninth Doctor said sarcastically.

"It always works on all the aliens I fight."

"And you always fight what? Romantic robots, mummies with breast plates that can't fit through doorways, and bugs that look like turds, who even give you the option of escape?"

"You're the one…"

"Stop it, NOW!" Rose shouted. "The ghost disappeared, and you two were too busy arguing to see."

One of the desk drawers thumped open.

"I checked those" said the fourth Doctor. "They were all locked."

The trio crept towards the center of the room, towards the desk. Rose had a hand wrapped tightly around the ninth Doctor's jacket and the fourth Doctor's scarf. As they neared the edge of the desk, the fourth Doctor stepped forward and reached down into the drawer. He pulled out a dusty rectangle, and what looked like a petrified cheese wedge.

"It's a ouiji board" the fourth Doctor declared.

"I don't trust ouiji boards. They're bad luck" Rose said, though she didn't back away like she would have done if she had never met the Doctors.

The ouiji began to scrape across the board, sounding like sandpaper. The fourth Doctor quickly set it down, on the green, leather inlet on top of the desk.

"I-L-O-V-E-R-O-S-E. I love Rose" the fourth Doctor read.

Now Rose stepped away tightening her hold on the Doctors' clothing, and nearly choking the fourth Doctor.

"How could a ghost possibly love me?" she asked.

"Wait, look it's still going" said the ninth Doctor. He read off the board. "T-H-E-A-T-E-R-W-A-S-F-O-R-H-E-R-B-U-T-S-H-E-L-E-F-T-M-E. The theater was for her, but she left me." The Doctors looked up at Rose, from where they had been watching the board intently. Rose let go of them, and held her hands up defensively.

"It's not me, honest. I know who he's talking about now. K-9 said the old owner renamed the theater halfway into building it after his wife who died. Her name was Rose." Rose was feeling much more confident knowing this wasn't some 300 year old ticked off criminal ghost. She stepped forward and gently placed her hands on the ouiji. If she could fight aliens, she could conquer a ouji.

"Why are you still here?" she asked. The Doctors stared at her, with mixtures of worry for her safety, and disappointment she got to ask the questions.

"T-O-H-E-L-P, to help" Rose read. "Why are people disappearing?"

"I-T-E-L-L-T-H-E-M-M-Y-S-T-O-R-Y, I tell them my story." The fourt Doctor had taken over the reading. "He must use some transdimensional pathway to actually take them physically to his past." His eyes bugged out, his normal look of realization.

"What do you teach them?" Rose questioned, her fingers barely touching the ouiji.

"L-O-V-E-W-I-T-H-O-U-T-A-B-A-N-D-O-N, love without…abandon." Rose's fingers were shaking violently. She finished reading the message in almost a whisper. Rose barely felt her legs crumple under her as she felt to the floor.

"Rose!" the Doctors shouted in unison. The ninth Doctor bent down beside her

"Rose, are you okay?" he asked. Her eyes were directed at the floor, pensive. She looked up at the Doctors.

"He's not doing any harm, so can we just leave him? He won't hurt anyone, and nobody besides people like Mickey will notice, and no one will ever expect a ghost to be behind short disappearances, and he's getting better at returning them to the same time they left, and…." Rose stopped. Tears were glistening in her eyes, clouding her vision.

"Rose, ghosts can become quite dangerous if left to their own devices." The fourth Doctor said. "Their entire existence is based on emotion, so in order to stay here ghosts become bipolar. If this ghost gets angry or frustrated even in the smallest amount, he could hurt someone."

"But he's been here for almost two hundred years already, and his mission will always keep him centered on the positive. Besides, Mickey can keep an eye on him." Rose was beginning to sound desperate, and her body was shaking as she tried to withhold sobs.

The Doctors looked to each other. The ninth Doctor nodded, suddenly grim, but the fourth Doctor was beaming as he knelt over the board and placed his own fingers on the decrepit ouiji. Meanwhile, the ninth Doctor picked up Rose bride-style. Her tears were flowing freely now. The ninth Doctor bent to whisper in her ear.

"Don't worry, Rose. He'll be fine. Now, sleep."

Rose only managed to nod, and turn a little to breath in the Doctor's leathery scent, before she was asleep.

When Rose awoke, she was back on the main stage of the theater wrapped in her sleeping bag. The two Doctors surrounded her, each laying on their own sleeping bags and were discussing something over her.

"Good morning" she said, rubbing her eyes. The Doctors' conversation stopped and they each smiled down at her. "How long have I been asleep?"

"Only about an hour" replied the fourth Doctor on her right, as she lay on her back.

"You had quite an experience. Temporal and spatial shift powered only by emotion. Twice." The ninth Doctor added. He began to grin broadly. "Now, what did you see?"

"Sam took me back into his past. He showed me how his wife died."

"Sam?" questioned the fourth Doctor.

"Yeah." Rose was quiet. "He loved his wife desperately, and he thought she loved him just as much." Rose smiled. "She was actually quite pretty, and they really made a cute couple when they were first married. All lovey-dovey and everything. So anyway, he actually got his start as a farmer's son, and it was only with some lucky breaks that he had enough wealth to be considered middle-class, and worthy to marry her. He worried about that all the time. He was scared that if he lost his wealth, he'd lose her too. So he began to through himself into his work, to make sure he'd always have the money to support her and keep her with him. He began to build the theater, so he could rent it out to various traveling groups. That and his wife always loved plays." Rose was sullen again. "They'd been married twenty years when he began to build the theater, and he still loved her as much as the day they'd gotten married." Rose was sullen again. "But halfway through construction he found out that she'd taken a lover because he was gone so often." Tears were gathering at the corners of Rose's eyes. "It was so terrible. I could feel all his emotions. They were so strong." Rose pause for a moment to contain herself. "Anyway, when he found out he asked her about it, asked if she still loved him. They were walking all around the construction site as they argued. She had climbed some scaffolding that reached up to build the boxes. And oh, it all so complicated, but she… she did still love him. And then, right after she'd shouted down her confession, she was so eloquent, a beam from the half constructed roof fell right on top of her killing her instantly. Sam said he thought it was an act of God." Rose's tears had escaped and were pouring down her cheeks uninhibited. "He renamed the theater after her. He died only five years after that because he wasted away. Without her, thinking about her, blaming himself. But for those five years, all he preached whenever he talked to anyone was to 'love without abandon', to cherish those you have, while you have them. When he found he'd turned into a ghost, he thought it was another act of God, that he must live on to teach others about his mistake." Rose let her tears flow.

The ninth Doctor was the first to lean in, and envelop her in a tender hug, planting a kiss on the top of her head. The fourth Doctor followed suit, so the trio sat there in a group hug, in the middle of a stage, in a decrepit old theater, in the middle of a country town, in the middle of England. No words needed to be said, even if the Doctors' did have a lot of time to promise.

As her tears slowed, Rose sighed contentedly. Even if her eyes were red and puffy , even if her nose was leaking snot like Jackie's kitchen sink when she wanted to see the repair man, Rose was sandwiched between the two men she loved. And besides, the fourth Doctor's chest was still bare, and somehow the ninth Doctor had ripped a hole in the side of his t-shirt revealing some very fine abs. What more could she want?

"I suppose we'll have to thank Mickey, eh?" she asked. "I mean without him, we'd never have found Sam, and without Sam, I couldn't do this and not get strange looks." She lifted herself up and kissed both of the Doctor's full on the lips. Of course, she got strange looks anyway, but that was okay.

"Mistress, Mistress, Masters Doctors, I've computed who the ghost is from my data banks." K-9 was rolling onto the stage from behind the curtain. "It's the-"

"We know K-9" interrupted the fourth Doctor. "It was Sam Keetcher, the theater owner."

"He was after the hidden treasure, so he dressed up as the Ghost to scare everyone away" Rose added, smiling.

"I do not understand, mistress. There was no treasure." Rose sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Didn't you look up Scooby-Doo, K-9?"

"Yes mistress. I know who Scooby-Doo is."

"Well, that's how all the episodes ended, with the unveiling of the bad guy."

"No mistress, they ended with Scooby licking his choops and going 'Scooby-Dooby-Doo, hee-hee-hee-hee-hee."

Rose's laughter echoed off the walls, along with the Doctors' at K-9's metallic version. Deep within the theater, laughter also knocked against the walls. Except this was a hiss, undetectable to living ears. An evil hiss.


End file.
